Shoe salesman&#39;s stool



June 28, 1955 C.1NORDBAK 2,711,572

SHOE SALESMANS STOOL Filed Oct. 4, 1952 a9 INVENTOR. CneL Noeosmd 10 J2BY Jfforn e] United States Patent .1. ,6 v SHOE SALESMANS STOOL CarlNordhak, Lynwood, Calif.

Application October 4-, 1952, Serial No. 313,109

2 Claims. (or. 88-74) This invention relates to a stool of the type usedby retail salesmen in fitting shoes on a seated customer and is directedto improvements in such a salesmans stool having the general object ofpromoting sales as well as the objectof reducing the time required tocomplete individual sales.

In the usual selling procedure wherein a conventional salesmans stoolis, used to try a shoe on a customer, the customer seesthe shoe onlyfrom one viewpoint unless he rises from his seat and walks to a set ofmirrors.

Usually the one viewpoint is not enough for reaching a decision sincethe customer is naturally interested in how his shoes impress otherpeople and other people see his shoes from other viewpoints, includingfront viewpoints and side, viewpoints. Instead of taking the trouble towalk to a mirrora customer may sit looking at a newly fitted shoefromhis limited viewpoint for an appreciable period of time, trying tovisualize the shoe as seen from other viewpoints. It has been found,too, that a customer may reject a pair of shoes. on first sight from thesingle viewpoint that he would probably buy if he took trouble to walkto a viewing mirror;

It is a, specific object of the present invention to give the customermultiple, views. of the newly fitted shoe while he is. still seated.One, result, of course, is to eliminate the time and trouble, requiredto walk to a viewing mirror, thereby reducing the time necessary to tryon and inspect a shoe. promptly viewing; the. shoe from several angles.If the customer is inclined to favor the newly fitted shoe, thesuccessive diverse images have a cumulative effect in building up afirst impression conducive to a quick di ision to buy. On the otherhand, if the customer is not favorably inclined, the successive imagesencourage a prompt rejection. Thus the invention tends to minimize theindecision of a customer.

The invention is embodied in a stool having a seat portion for thesalesman and having a forward downwardly sloping footrest for thecustomers foot and the invention accomplishes its basic object byproviding the stool with at least one mirror, preferably severalmirrors. A certain problem arises, however, since mirrors positioned forfront and side views of a customers shoe on the footrest tend tointerfere with the salesmans manual task of fitting shoes. The problemof providing a mirror for a front view is especially troublesome.

A feature of the invention is that it solves the mirror problem at thefootrest of the stool by two different concepts. One concept is to placethe mirrors for side views at such low angles on each side of thefootrest as to minimize interference with the shoe fitting procedure.The other concept is to provide a retractable mirror for the front viewof shoes, which mirror is normally in a retracted position out of theway but may be quickly shifted to a viewing position when desired. Afurther feature of the invention in this regard is the concept ofplacing a mirror on the side of the salesmans stool, preferably on thefront side of the stool, for use by the Another result is thepsychological effect of customer to view a shoe on his foot from astanding position. v

The various objects and advantages of the invention may be understoodfrom the following description in conjunction with the accompanyingdrawing.

In the drawing, which is to be regarded as merely illusttrative:

Fig. 1 is a perspective view of the presently preferred embodiment ofthe salesmans stool;

Fig. 2 is a longitudinal vertical section of the salesmans stool shownin Fig. 1; and

Fig. 3 is a transverse vertical section taken as indicated by the line3-3 of Fig. 1.

The illustrative embodiment of the salesmans stool is of hollow box-likestructure having two side walls 10 that converge from a relatively widerear wall 11 to a relatively narrow front wall 12. The rear wall 11 isprovided with an outer mirror 15 and is inclined at an angle to serve asa viewing mirror for the customer. At the salesmans suggestion thecustomer may rise to stand in front of the mirror 15 to view the shoesfrom various angles as may be desired. The salesman, of course, rises asthe customer walks around the stool.

The top of the salesmans stool is made in two sections both of which arerelatively wide to overhang the two sidewalls 10. One of the topsections is a seat 17 for the salesman and may be padded or upholsteredin any suitable manner. The other top section of the salesmans stool isa support surface or footrest 18 that slopes forwardly and downwardlyfrom the seat 17 and is pro.- vided at its lower end with a suitablecross-strip 20. The footrest 18 is preferably covered by a rubber mat21.

To afford side views of a shoe on the footrest 18 for the benefit of thecustomer a pair of side mirrors 24 is provided each being mounted on oneside of the footrest and extending outwardly at an angle therefrom.Since a salesman seated on the seat 17 has ready access to the footrest18 through the space between the two side mirrors 24, the side mirrors24 may be at relatively high angles with respect to the plane of thefootrest 18. Preferably, however, the two side mirrors 24 are inclinedatrelatively low angles with respect to the footrest 18, not only toprovide maximum freedom of movement for the salesmans hands and arms butalso to provide low-angle side view images of a shoe for the customer.

A mirror 27 to afford the customer a front view of a shoe on thefootrest 18 is suitably mounted on the salesmans stool to retract out ofthe way when not in use. In the present construction, for example, themirror 27 is mounted in the upper part of an upright vertical frame 30of rectangular configuration and the vertical frame 30 is suitablymounted in a slot 31 that extends transversely across the top of thesalesmans stool between the seat 17 and the footrest 18. The verticalframe 30 is movable in the slot 31 between an upright position shown infull lines in the three figures of the drawing and a lower positionshown in dotted lines in Figs. 2 and 3. It will be noted in Fig. 3 thatat the lower retracted position, the vertical frame 30 extendssufficiently upward from the slot 31 to afford a hand hold so that thesalesman may grasp the retracted frame and lift it to its upperposition. The top of the retracted frame is indicated by the dotted line32 in Fig. 3.

Any suitable arrangement may be employed to guide the vertical frame 39between its two positions and to releasably hold the vertical frame ateither of the two positions. In the presently illustrated construction,for example, the vertical frame abuts a pair of upright guide strips orrails 35 that are mounted on the side walls 10 inside the stool. Asuitable helical spring 36 connected at one end to a bottom cross-piece37 of the vertical frame 39 and connected at its other end to aneye-screw 38, on the inner side of the front wall 12 serves to hold thevertical frame against the two rails 35 in a yielding manner.

The two guide rails 35 are formed with a lower set of shoulders 39 tosupport the vertical frame 30 at its lower retracted position as shownin dotted lines in Fig. 2 and are also provided with upper similarshoulders 40 to support the vertical frame at its upper position asshown in full lines in Fig. 2. In the particular rail construction hereillustrated, each rail 35 is made in two pieces, namely, a main strip 41of full width and an auxiliary strip 42 nailed thereto. The auxiliarystrip 42 provides the two shoulders 39 and 40 as well as an inclinedguide surface 43 between the two shoulders.

The manner in which the described salesmans stool serves its purpose maybe readily understood from the foregoing description. With the uprightmirror 27 in its lower retracted position the salesman has the necessaryfreedom for arm movement necessary to fit a shoe on the customer. Thesalesman may then lift the vertical frame 30 to its upper positionthereby placing the'upright mirror 27 in its effective position as shownin the three figures of the drawing. As may be understood by inspectingFig. l the customer, without rising from his seat,

is provided with a front view image of the shoe by the upright mirror 27and is provided with two low angle side view images by the two sidemirrors 24.

If the customer desires to continue trying on shoes after inspecting oneshoe with the aid of the three mirrors, the salesman lowers the uprightmirror 27 out of the way by simply grasping the mirror andsimultaneously rocking it forward and pushing it downward. The slot 31serves as a fulcrum for rocking the vertical frame 30 out of engagementwith the upper shoulders 40 of the guide rails 35, thereby freeing thevertical frame for downward movement to its lower position intoengagement with the lower shoulders 39.

If a customer seems interested in a shoe as he views it in the uprightmirror 27 and the two side mirrors 24, the customer may be invited torise and try out the shoe from a standing position, the sloping mirror15 being available for the customers convenience.

It is apparent that the described salesmans stool arouses customerinterest and stimulates sales by affording multiple images of a new shoewhile the customer is seated and will shorten the time required for acustomer to make up his mind whether or not to buy a particular pair ofshoes. It is also apparent that the described stool saves the usual timerequired to walk to and from a Wall mirror.

My description in specific detail of the presently preferred form of theinvention will suggest to those skilled in the art various changes}substitutions and other departures from my disclosure that properly liewithin the spirit and scope of the appended claims.

Having described my invention, I claim:

1. A salesmans stool for use in fitting shoes on a seated customer, saidstool comprising: a box-like structure forming a seat for the salesmanand a footrest sloping downward therefrom, said structure having atransverse slot between said seat and footrest; an upright frame mountedfor movement through said slot between a lower retracted position atleast largely inside said structure and an upper position extendingabove the plane of said footrest; a mirror on said frame to present tothe customer a front view image of a shoe on the customers foot on saidfootrest when said frame is at its upper position; a shoulder on saidstructure for engagement by said frame to hold the frame at its upperposition; yielding means interconnecting said structure and frame tourge said frame laterally into releasable engagement with said shoulder;and a pair of mirrors inclined outward from opposite sides of saidfootrest to present to the customer side view images of the shoe.

2. A salesmans stool for use in fitting shoes on a seated customer, saidstool comprising: a box-like structure including a top wall having asubstantially horizontal portion to serve as a seat for the salesman andan adjacent sloping portion to serve as a footrest for the seatedcustomer, with a transverse slot in the top wall in the region of thejuncture of said two portions; ail-upright mirror mounted on saidstructure for movement between a lower retracted position inside thestructure afiording the salesman full accessibility to said footrestportion and an upper position extending above the footrest portion topermit the seated customer to view his foot on the footrest from thefront; means to retain said mirror releasably in its upper position; andtwomirrors fixedly mounted by their lower edges on the opposite sides,respectively, of said footrest to permit the seated customer to view thesides of his foot on the footrest, said two mirrors being inclinedoutward from the vertical to give the seated salesman arm room forfitting a shoe on said footrest portion.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS is AnnAtt

